by Joanna Wylde
Only part of a bike, and he thought I was okay with it, I reminded her.
“A ride to work would be nice,” I said slowly. Shade’s eyes flared with triumph, and his hands tightened on my hips. Then one slid up my back to my head, cradling it as his mouth slanted down over mine. His tongue slipped between my lips, invading so fast my head spun. It was a surprise attack—that was my only excuse for giving in so easily. I felt his other hand catch my ass, squeezing and pulling it into his body in a way that left no doubt that he was happy to see me.
Felt good. Way too good.
The blip of a police siren filled the air and we froze. Then Shade lifted his head, releasing me from his tight embrace while still keeping one arm firmly around my shoulders. Across the road, a county sheriff’s car had pulled to a stop. The door opened to reveal a tall, lean man in a deputy’s uniform who took in the scene, eyes flickering to my face.
I felt myself tense, the same way I did every time I saw a cop, and my heart sped up.
“You must be Mandy McBride,” he said, surprising me.
“Um, yeah. I’m Mandy,” I answered, wondering how he knew my name. Shade’s arm tightened around my shoulder and the deputy’s eyes narrowed.
“I’m Heath Andrews. I know your sister, Hannah. You look a lot like her. She works for my folks at the grocery store.” His eyes flickered toward Shade. “Don’t usually see the Reapers down here on the flat. Thought I’d stop by and make sure everything’s okay.”
Shit. Hannah must’ve called him. Probably panicked when Shade started kissing me…except there hadn’t been enough time for that, had there?
Shade’s club brothers had gone from being relaxed to something else. Alert. Focused. There was a tension in the air, and I knew in that instant that whatever rumors I might’ve heard about the local law enforcement being in bed with the Reapers, Heath Andrews wasn’t part of it.
Interesting.
One of the bikers cracked his knuckles as Andrews took a step forward. The man was outnumbered, I realized. Outnumbered by a lot, but it didn’t seem to faze him. He walked right up to me and Shade, eyes taking in the situation in a way that left me with no doubt that he saw everything.
“I’d like to speak with you and your sister inside, Ms. McBride,” he said, the words casual but the tone firm. Shade’s fingers tightened on my shoulder and I had a sudden, horrible realization.
Of course there hadn’t been enough time for Hannah to call Andrews. Either this was a total coincidence, or he’d been planning to come here all along. Holy shit, they really did kill Rebel and now he’s come to question me!
I felt my body start to tremble, a rush of fear and adrenaline filling me. I remembered the cops pulling up next to me in Missoula. I hadn’t even been smart enough to realize I was in trouble. Nope, I’d been too busy Facebooking on my phone, for God’s sake.
I’d waved hello to them.
Then I’d spent three nights in the county jail before a friend managed to bail me out, and I was still on probation. Sure, it was unsupervised probation—the prosecutor had thrown me a bone, seeing as I’d been clueless about the whole thing—but my record wasn’t exactly clean.
Shit shit shit!
“I have to get ready for work,” I told Andrews, the words coming out in a rush. “I have a shift down at the Pit and I can’t be late. Can we talk another time?”
His eyes narrowed and a new tension filled the air.
“Ms. McBride, this won’t take very long, but it’s important that we talk. Would you mind stepping into the trailer?”
“You got a warrant?” Shade asked, his voice deceptively casual. Andrews shook his head slowly. Shade let me go, taking a step forward. “No warrant, no probable cause. Sounds to me like you got no reason to be here at all.”
“Heath?”
My sister’s voice was strained. I spun around to find her standing on the porch, halfway through the door.
“Ms. McBride,” the deputy said, nodding his head to her. “I’d like to speak to you and your sister, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course—come right in,” she said, flustered. I stepped away from Shade and moved toward my sister. I wasn’t sure what was going on here, but I did know one thing. No way in hell I’d leave her alone with that cop if he’d come here because of me. This was my mess to clean up. Not hers.
Andrews started toward the steps, somehow never quite turning his back on the bikers. He didn’t seem afraid or uncomfortable in the slightest, despite the fact that he was totally outnumbered.
“Would you be willing to join us?” he asked me again, polite but pointed.
“I’ll come with you,” Shade said.
“I need to speak with Ms. McBride alone,” Andrews replied, and while his tone remained even, there was something in his voice that made it clear this wasn’t a negotiation. Shade stiffened. We were about to have a badass showdown if I didn’t do something.
“I’m happy to talk to you,” I said, ducking out from under Shade’s arm. He glanced down at me and I widened my eyes, willing him to go along with it. He didn’t like the idea, but thankfully he decided not to force the issue in front of the deputy.
Heath waved me into the trailer, following me inside. Hannah closed the door behind us.
“Can I get you anything to drink?” she asked him, looking nervous. Not nervous in a I-did-something-wrong-and-the-cops-are-here kind of way. I knew all about that from my time with Trevor. No, this was cute-boy-is-talking-to-me-in-the-cafeteria-at-school nervous.
Oh. My. God.
Was my sister into the sheriff’s deputy?
Andrews smiled. “Nothing to drink. I appreciate the offer, but I just wanted to be sure you ladies were all right. I don’t usually see the Reapers around here. Figured I should check up on you.”
“That’s very nice,” Hannah replied awkwardly, and any doubts I might’ve had disappeared. She liked him. How did I not know this already? I’d told her everything about Rebel, and the whole story about Shade, too. We always spilled—always. How had this gotten by me?
Except she knew how uncomfortable I felt around cops. She’d probably been scared to talk to me. Andrews turned to look in my direction.
“You’ve got some bruising on your face,” he said quietly. “Do you feel safe with those men outside?”
“They’re fine,” I said quickly. “I got the bruises from falling…”
Gee, that sounded like a scene from a low budget PSA for battered women. Heath Andrews wasn’t fooled for a minute.
“You can tell me what happened,” he said. “I’ll help protect you. The Reapers have a lot of influence in the area, but you don’t have to put up—”
“No, it’s really not that,” I said, glancing between him and my sister. “Hannah, tell him. It wasn’t the Reapers.”
“It wasn’t,” she agreed. He caught her gaze and held it, assessing, then nodded.
“Then who was it?”
“I fell into a pickup truck,” I said. “I mean, the side of it. I hit my head on the mirror. I was drinking.”
Andrews studied me again. “You sure that’s the story you want to go with?”
“It’s the truth,” I insisted, reminding myself that it was. I had been drinking last night and I’d definitely fallen into the mirror. I’d just left out the part about the fall happening after Rebel threw me. And to be fair, I’d punched him. “There’s nothing here that needs investigating. I’m safe. Truly.”
“She is,” Hannah insisted. “I wouldn’t lie to you, Heath.”
Heath. Not Deputy Andrews. Heath. I shot my sister a look that promised we’d be talking later. She glanced away, blushing again.
“You sure you won’t fall into any more trucks?” he asked. “You have choices, Mandy. I can protect you. There’s a place where women can go.”
He obviously didn’t believe me… I needed to give him something more.
“Those bikers out there,” I said, nodding toward the door. “I think they’ll
make sure there aren’t any more trucks in my future. I mean, if for some reason I had trouble again. Which I won’t.”
“The Reapers are considered a gang by law enforcement,” he told me, his voice serious. “Organized crime. Did you know that?”
“I understand, but they haven’t done anything to me. Truly. This little…accident…had nothing to do with them. If anything, they helped me out of a tough situation. I don’t have any reason to be afraid of them.”
“All right,” Andrews said. He looked to Hannah again. “I didn’t see you downtown this morning.”
Holy crap, they see each other often enough that he noticed she took a sick day! Hannah was a checker in Violetta’s only grocery store, which meant she saw everyone in town, but she wasn’t the only checker.
“You’re going to be late for work if you don’t head out soon,” Hannah said, looking at me. I pulled out my new phone and realized she was right. Crap.
“Let me grab my stuff,” I said. “Shade is giving me a ride.”
Andrews didn’t make any move to leave as I grabbed my bag, then ducked into the bathroom to check my hair and makeup. The bruise was still pretty obvious. Ugh. Hopefully it wouldn’t show as much in the dim shadows of the bar. I took a second to text Hannah a quick “U OK with him? If not, send SOS” and then ran out the door, leaving the deputy still inside.
Shade stood waiting for me outside, body language all angry alpha.
Great. Just what I needed.
“Everything is fine,” I told him. “He wanted to be sure you hadn’t given me the bruise.”
Shade snorted. “Fuckin’ asshole. Just ’cause I ride a bike doesn’t mean I beat up women.”
“Actually, I think he was more concerned about Hannah,” I replied. “Apparently they talk down at the grocery store or something. When he saw all of you here, he got worried.”
Shade cocked a brow.
“Interesting. He single?”
“No idea,” I said, shrugging.
“You tell him Rebel did it?” he asked, catching my hand and pulling me toward his bike. The other Reapers fell in beside us. I suddenly felt very short and small.
“I told him I fell into a truck, and that it wasn’t going to happen again. He offered to help me get away if I needed it. I don’t. That’s about it. You don’t need to worry—I didn’t drag the Reapers and Rebel into anything.”
“You think that’s what I’m worried about?” Shade said, pulling up short. “Mandy, I made you a promise—anything that happens with Rebel won’t come back on you. Not today, not ever. I don’t need you lying to protect me. I’m a big boy.”
“What makes you think I was trying to protect you?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood. “I’m the one who punched the asshole and smashed up his truck.”
One of the other bikers—Dopey—snorted, and Shade turned to glare at him. I glanced back toward the trailer, wondering if Andrews was watching us through the window. How had things gotten so complicated so fast?
“Can you just give me a ride to work?” I asked Shade. “I’m running late and I need to talk to my boss.”
“You got it, babe.”
“I’m really sorry about last night,” I told Bone. My boss sat behind his desk in the bar office looking grim and grumpy as usual. “I know you need to be able to count on me.”
He leaned back in his chair, eyeing the bruise on my cheek.
“Rebel do that or Shade?” he asked bluntly.
“It wasn’t Shade,” I replied, refusing to answer fully. “And it won’t happen again. The Reapers told him to disappear.”
Bone gave a rare smile. “I take it Rebel’s gone, then.”
“I wouldn’t know. We aren’t talking.”
Bone nodded thoughtfully, his smile vanishing as quickly as it’d appeared. “I suppose you think you’re with Shade now?”
“Nope. I’d like to think I’m with myself,” I told him, frowning. “Why does everyone around here assume that I have to be with a man?”
“Well, seeing as women don’t ride with the Reapers, any girl who pulls up with them is with a man by definition. But Shade’s not the type to have an old lady. I hope you realize that.”
“I don’t care what Shade is or isn’t,” I said, and it was almost true. “Last night was a mess. I don’t know what you heard and I don’t want to get into the details. I’m just glad I got through it and nobody got hurt.”
“Aside from your face.”
“I caused a hell of a lot more damage than he did,” I snapped back. “Jesus Christ, you’d think I’m some wilting flower here or something. I fucked up, okay? I dated an asshole and he did what all assholes do eventually and fucked me over. As for the Reapers…I don’t know what to think of them but I’m not looking to get involved there, either. All I want to do is take care of my sister and do my job. Is that really so much to ask?”
The words came out of me in a rush. Bone cocked a brow and then I realized what I’d just done. Bitched out my boss. Sure, I’d been thinking about trying to find a new job, but given the fact that I lived in a town of less than a thousand people and didn’t have a car, available jobs weren’t exactly jumping out at me.
“Sorry,” I said, although the word didn’t sound very sincere—probably because it wasn’t. I wasn’t sorry. I was pissed.
Bone shook his head.
“Christ, and to think I was worried about you,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “But you keep that up and you’ll be fine. Is Shade done with you?”
“Not my problem. I’m done with him.”
Bone laughed, the sound more of a snort than anything. “Great attitude—too bad it doesn’t work that way. You’re done with him when he’s done with you, not the other way around.”
“I don’t accept that.”
“Well, this should be entertaining to watch,” he said. “I realize you’re all full of female empowerment and have things under control, but if I could offer a word of advice?”
“Sure,” I said, trying to decide if he was making fun of me.
“Don’t fall for him no matter what he says. These guys get hot for some girl and they go crazy. Treat her like a queen, convince her they can’t live without her. You’ll fall in love. Then he’ll see someone else with a cute butt and it’ll all be over.”
“You do realize you’re describing yourself, right?” I asked. Bone cracked another smile.
“Yup. That’s why you should listen to me. Have fun with Shade if you want, but don’t take him seriously. He’s a short-term guy.”
I sighed. “Bone, I don’t think I’ve ever told you this, but I love strawberries.”
“Most people do.”
“Yeah, but most people aren’t allergic to them. Damned things give me hives like you wouldn’t believe. Sometimes I convince myself that I can handle just one. That if I only have a tiny taste, I’ll be okay… Sure enough, half an hour later I’m puffed up like a balloon and red as a baboon’s ass.”
Bone studied me thoughtfully.
“And?”
“For me, men are like strawberries,” I told him earnestly. “I’ve come to realize this. It doesn’t matter how good they smell, if I get too close they’ll poison me. That’s why I’m giving them up—for my health. From now on, consider me your resident nun.”
My boss smiled. “I don’t usually see nuns wearing shorts that tiny.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, so I’m a slutty nun who needs the tips. God understands. You gotta dress for success in this world.”
“Yeah, this is gonna be entertaining as hell,” he said. “Just don’t come crying to me when he dumps you.”
Chapter Nine
“You’re going to have to talk to him sooner or later,” Sara said, smirking at me. I glanced toward the back of the bar where the Reapers had taken up residence. So far I’d refused to have anything to do with them, insisting that Sara take care of their table.
Except Shade kept sending Sara back to me.
&nb
sp; I’d assumed that if I just held out long enough, he would give up or they’d leave, but the man was stubborn.
“Sara’s right,” Bone said, laying down the law. “You need to get your ass over there.”
“But I’m allergic to him—remember our talk?”
“Are you allergic to earning money?” Bone countered. “Because that’s sort of my thing here. Earning money. I got seven guys back there who aren’t drinking because my waitress won’t serve them. Call me crazy, but I think you should do something about it before I get pissy.”
I swore quietly.
“Bone’s right for once,” Sara agreed.
“So glad you approve,” Bone said. “I been worryin’ all night my waitresses won’t agree with how I want to run my bar.”
“Someone’s grumpy,” she replied, giving me a wink. “What’s wrong, Bone—you get left high and dry last night?”
“Someday I’m gonna fire you for talking like that.”
“Maybe some day, but not today.” Laughing, she started toward the front of the bar, where a couple of fresh patrons had just found themselves a table. Bone’s eyes followed her across the room. If I hadn’t been so frustrated with the Shade situation, I might’ve called him on it.
Unfortunately, the Reapers were still waiting for their drinks and I couldn’t risk losing my job. Sucking it up, I headed for their table, offering my brightest, fakest, most generic waitress smile.
“What can I get you gentlemen to drink?” I asked.
“’Bout fuckin’ time,” Dopey rumbled. “Been stuck waiting here for an hour.”
“I’m so sorry—I thought you’d been helped,” I said, ignoring Shade pointedly. “In fact, I could’ve sworn I saw Sara back here several times. Guess I need glasses. Now can I take your order, please?”
“Four pitchers,” Shade said. “The usual. And some shots.”
I hated how he just assumed that I’d know what he drank, except I actually did, and pretending I didn’t would mean talking to him longer. Heading back toward the bar, I watched as the door opened and another group came in. More bikers. Bikers I recognized—Rebel’s club.